About Us
People
We are strategists and entrepreneurs, policy-makers and researchers, big data analysts and creative producers. Our team is made of experienced and skilled professionals working with a global network of leading experts from all sectors.
Culture
We look at problems as the starting point of solutions. We are forward-looking, results-oriented and impact-driven. We are change-makers, value-creators and opportunities builders. We innovate, engage and strategically reposition your organisation through excellence.
Values
High level professionalism, outstanding value, full engagement and compelling results. A tailor-made approach integrated and optimised to your needs for the richest quality support. An inclusive and holistic methodology empowering people to lead, innovate and transform business.
Tomas Matraia
CEO
Director for Strategy, Partnerships and Internationalization
Tomas Matraia is a seasoned international policy expert and business negotiator, having worked for more than 15 years within United Nations, European Commission, Academia and the private sector. He designed and managed multimillion programmes, projects, facilitated strategic initiatives combining STRI, Industry, SDGs including international ministerial agreements and EU high-level policy dialogues. His current efforts focus on re-inventing how innovation, procurement, catalytic capital, sustainable development, green growth and international cooperation can be symbiotically applied to offer new actionable and replicable models, evidence-based policies, business opportunities and social impact. Tomas is a frequent speaker at numerous institutional events and international debates, providing also dedicated trainings in emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, communication and innovation processes.
Paweł Książkiewicz
COO
Economics, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Operations
Paweł is a talented and dynamic entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in leading businesses in their operational development, organic growth and commercial success. He ensures strategic vision translates into added value operations, long-term relationships, new customers’ generation, business’ expansion and long-term sustainability. He establishes operational benchmarks and resources needed to achieve strategic goals, proactively driving improvements as necessary including: setting standards of accountability and clearly defined measurements of success. With a brilliant personality and an outstanding sense of human relations, Paweł is an engaged entrepreneur, always looking for new and innovative ways of using the power of the private sector for the benefits of the community. Paweł has a higher education degree in Economics with a focus on international business from the University of Gdańsk.
Yane Frenski
Manager
Innovative Learning Solutions, Education Technologies & SDGs, Knowledge Sharing and Management, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning
Yane Frenski is an international expert on education, technology and innovation working for the past decades for various United Nations offices around the globe and the private sector. He is specialized in designing global solutions serving wide range of beneficiaries while providing localization, contextualization and implementation of SDGs. With a key focus on learning solutions, education technologies, knowledge sharing and management, Yane has worked in developing and developed countries connecting industry, research and communities. His educational background is in software engineering and his innovation and tech experience is backed by several involvements as a co-founder of startup companies. He leads the work of The AdWisers focusing on the use of modern technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence for social impact, among which is disrupting education and knowledge sharing to serve our society in the era of the fourth industrial revolution.
Edyta Książkiewicz
Manager
Market-University-Research, Ship, Off-Shore & Maritime Technology
Edyta Książkiewicz is a high-level specialist with remarkable technical and academic expertise. She provides effective solutions connecting the research & development sectors with industry needs for market uptake. With a strong commitment to excellence, Edyta manages international and national projects including the design, technical specifications and implementation phases. Her focus areas include maritime and ocean technology, applied to drilling platforms, large ships construction, stability and materials. Edyta has an advanced degree from the Gdańsk Polytechnic University of Technology.
Besnik Mehmeti
Manager
EU Projects, Cities, Local Authorities, Creative & Textile industry
Besnik Mehmeti has a distinguished expertise and a winning track of records in securing and managing EU funded projects related to urban issues, smart cities, local authorities and its policy-making. He provides strategic advisory and funding opportunities to local and regional administrators, communities and businesses. His core areas are the promotion of innovation, technological development, entrepreneurship, creative and cultural industries. His ability to master complex and multilateral partnerships and initiatives led to the successful development and implementation of several innovative actions and partnerships at local and regional level.
Elisa Ricci
Manager
Digital Marketing and Branding, Omnichannel Planning and Strategy, Customer Experience and Engagement, Sustainability & Social Impact
With more than 15 years in the marketing and communication sectors, Elisa comprehensively masters the digital transformation challenges for data-driven decision makers, commercially-minded marketers and digital entrepreneurs looking for a truly meaningful impact. Her work enables organisations to shift marketing focus from product/processes to human-centric, highly personalised, rich and fulfilling experiences. Her focus is to help public and private organisations making their content more relevant to citizens. By fostering clients’ understanding and usage of new technology for digital marketing, she secures high customer engagement. Elisa builds competitive edge and advances agile marketing organisational change along with product and content innovation. Her professional experience includes several international leading companies in the fashion industry and one of the largest and more socially and environmentally responsible global players in the food retail sector.
Mario Ivanov
Manager
ICT, Security, Blockchain, System Architecture
Having been active in the IT industry for more than 20 years Mario has an extensive experience and know-how across the whole field. He has managed to successfully take advantage of his strong theoretical background in physics, mathematics and computer science and combine it with practical implementations as lead system architect and CTO with several companies. His area of interests is security, infrastructure, distributed systems and availability. Since the last decade he is also active in the field of Blockchain and DLT focusing on encryption, fault tolerance and zero-knowledge systems and is one of the founding members of Austrian Association for Distributed-Ledger-Technologies.
Monika Ziółek
Manager
Creative & cultural industries, art & investment, import-export
With more than 20 years of entrepreneurial success at international level, Monika brings her business expertise, skillset and determination to The AdWisers and its clients. She is the founder of a dynamic advertising agency combining quality product design with innovation, sustainability and events’ organization for international corporations and public institutions. Through the years Monika expanded her areas of experience, range of products and services and developed an impressive portfolio of international clients, from SMEs to large corporations, which she successfully helped in securing new business and market opportunities in Europe, south-east Asia, Taiwan, India, China and the Gulf Countries. Her latest projects focus on the digitization and investment in the art-industry and NFTs technology as a win-win opportunity for: investors looking for valuable alternative investments in the current uncertain market environment; artists looking for access to market, visibility and digitalization opportunity; the public sector interested in new business models and increased sustainability while supporting the creative and cultural industry. Monika has a degree in Economics and is a founder of an internet Art Gallery and auction house.
Enrique Doblas Miranda
MANAGER
Climate and Global Change, Environment, Rural Development, Ecosystems
PhD in biology, Enrique Doblas is a renowned international researcher specialised in the adaptation and mitigation of climate change, environmental challenges and rural development. His expertise includes ecosystems resilience and services, ecology, biodiversity, forestry, natural based solutions, soil protection and rehabilitation. His work focuses on the development and implementation of effective systems, practices and processes enabling the adaptation to global and climate change through: international projects, thematic capacity building, knowledge and tech-transfer. He fosters co-creation processes and partnerships with authorities, industry, communities and NGOs, combining rural and urban dynamics with policy development. Dr. Doblas cooperates with several international organisations contributing to the work of FAO, European Commission, Union for the Mediterranean and others. He performs research and has led the international cooperation and projects’ coordination of the Spanish Center of Excellence CREAF (Barcelona), a top performing and most competitive centres, awarded with the prestigious SEVERO OCHOA label and member of the SOMM Excellence Alliance. He teaches ecology at the UAB University.
Rosa Perez Rey
Manager
Human Resources, Recruitment, Career Impact & Administration
With a focus on talents, Rosa provides the best possible support to highly qualified and motivated individuals committed to delivering excellence and make an impact on contemporary challenges. She helps mission-driven organisations, authorities and businesses to select and recruit the most valuable and engaged human assets. With over 25 years experience in the EU Institutions (European Commission, Council of the EU, Economic and Social Committee) and the private sector, Rosa oversees all aspects of human resources management including external experts for The AdWisers. She ensures operational excellence across all processes and functions enabling meaningful career and personal growth.
Patrick Eisele
Manager
Corporate Finance, Transaction Banking, Treasury, Client Service
With 12 years in transaction banking and further 6 years in treasury for the automotive industry, Patrick offers a solid and in-depth expertise. He has been serving high value corporates by solving their working capital issues in key international banking locations around Europe (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland). His capacities include the mobilization of the banking sector, support to investors and entrepreneurs, securing funding and resources for innovative services, new businesses and scalable projects. Among his expertise areas: Cash pool structuring, implementation in the banking environment and treasury management systems, daily cash and liquidity management, payment services and netting structures. Thanks to his international profile, Patrick is well connected to multiple leading players in the banking and financial sector.
Adelaida Contreras Solís
Manager
Creative Solutions, Graphic Design, Advertising, Publishing, Visual Art
Adelaida is a graphic artist and creative manager from Venezuela with a proven track record helping clients in Latina America, US, Europe, Africa and Asia. She has a diverse background in a variety of mediums such as fine art, illustration, publishing, typography, advertising and graphic design. In the past 30 years, she has worked with an impressive number of clients, in the private and public sector including: the United Nations, the European Commission, trust funds, energy companies, foundations, NGOs as well as youth and women associations. In the last 15 years her solutions have focused on sustainable development, environment, women’s empowerment, human rights and democratic governance. She launched many innovative services, knowledge and educational tools, engaging courses and award winning products & publications. Through creative expression and compelling design she helps The AdWisers’ clients transforming their values and services into meaningful visual and emotional experiences.
Prof. Michael Kahn
Regional Director for Africa and the Gulf - Innovation, Governance, Policy
As a respected international policy adviser on innovation policy, strategy, measurement and evaluation, Michael has maintained a lifelong commitment to social entrepreneurship and development – of people, systems and self. He has worked as an academic, official, consultant and Ministerial Adviser, with project experience in South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Qatar, the United Kingdom, and Brazil, as well as the European Commission, African Union, OECD, UNESCO, the World Bank, African Development Bank, and Iberian Development Bank. Michael is an innovative facilitator, scenario developer, and mentor. He is professor extraordinaire at Stellenbosch University, and the University of the Western Cape, in Cape Town. Michael is the Regional Director of the Adwisers for Africa and the Gulf.
Maria Maia
Policy, International Cooperation, Research, Agrifood
A prominent and knowledgeable expert in the international cooperation, science, research and innovation fields, including the related policy-making dynamics and networks. Maria has been covering scientific and managerial roles both at institutional and private level, managing multi-governmental programmes and pioneering and innovative projects among the EU and the Mediterranean, Arab countries, Africa, India, Latin America. With a multidisciplinary background, including economics, management, natural sciences, ecology and rural environment, Maria is a renown and respected impact assessment expert, call evaluator and capacity building trainer.
BISER DIMITROV
Blockchain, Ethereum, Hyperledger, R&D
Biser is one of the veterans in the blockchain technology with first-class expertise in Ethereum and Hyperledger. He is a co-founder and technical director of the BlockEx digital asset exchange platform (https://www.blockex.com/) which has attracted $24M dollars investment through a very succesfull ICO. His capacities include development, implementation and supervision of the entire lifecycle of blockchain based digital assets, including origination, issuance, exchange, settlement and redemption. Among other initiatives, Biser was also providing professional blockchain consultancies for Fortune500 banks and large corporations.
Prof. Giancarlo Giudici
Climate & sustainable finance, ESG, fund management, crowdfunding, start-ups, green bonds
Experienced in research, business planning and evaluation within his fields of expertise, Giancarlo plays also contributes to the management of Climate Finance Observatory (Politecnico di Milano) where among other things, he estimates the economic and financial effect of climate change on revenues and profits of non-financial companies. His geographical areas of expertise include the EU, southeast Asia, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and the UAE. His most recent efforts focus on the effect of economic and financial development on environmental degradation for 12 SIDS; the relationship between ESG (environmental-social-governance) disclosure and market performance for equity and debt capital; capacity building of the financial ecosystem and its participants to improve innovative SMEs access to alternative forms of financing. He is full professor of corporate finance at the department of management engineering of Politecnico di Milano and adjunct professor at the Ton Duc Thang University in Vietnam.
ZORA POPOVA
Minority rights, Roma issues, social capital development, diversity management, civil society empowerment, good governance and democratization
Zora is a researcher and a policy analyst with a significant experience in training, consultancy, and project management. She has an MA degrees in Cultural Studies (Univ. of Sofia) and Southeast European Studies (Univ. of Athens) plus a PhD (Univ. of Bath, UK). In 2008-2012 she was Senior Expert within the Analytical Unit at the Administration of the President of Bulgaria (scenario building, speech writing, policy analysis, monitoring and planning and negotiations). At the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) in Flensburg, Germany, she was Senior Analyst. Zora supports the work of the European Commission, EACEA, TAIEX programme, OSCE, Council of Europe Ad Hoc Committee of Roma and Travelers Issues; her latest works focused on Ukraine. Zora is fluent in English, Russian and Bulgarian, speaks also Italian and has a good understanding of Macedonian and Serbian languages.
Nicola di Tomaso
ICT, Security, Strategic Leadership and Management
With a top-level managerial experience in several leading businesses and holdings, Nicola offers the distinguished profile for the strategic management and direction of an organisation. In his 40 years of experience he has covered several prestigious roles and provided high-value support to the energy, defense, space, security and financial sector. His capacities make certain an organisation maintains constant awareness of the external and internal competitive landscape, opportunities for expansion, customers, markets, new industry developments and standards. Nicola’s influential network allows him to effectively represent interests and ideas at the industry and state level and to enhance organization's reputation and potential for success.
Katia Maronati
Communication, Media Relations, Public Diplomacy
Katia has been holding leading positions in management, communications and development to public and private sector, including international donor projects (EU and UN). She has led some of the most relevant media and communication platforms in the EU Neighborhood and engaged general audience, governments and key-stakeholders on significant themes such as the Arab spring, women’s rights, public diplomacy. Her focus: media partnerships, development, identification of project opportunities, PR across multiple countries and markets.
Stefano Vannuzzi
Legal Support, IPR, Funding, SMEs
An eminent professional, known and respected at international level, Sandro has a in-depth and wide ranging expertise in key legal areas for internationalisation, partnerships and business development. His studio and international co-operators provide legal support and advice in relation to: Intellectual property rights (trade, forms, mark, patents etc.) protection and establishment of foreign companies and interests, finding of funds for SMEs and industries, feasibility studies. Sandro's international experience includes comprehensive knowledge of the EU Research and Development dynamics, with a specialisation on science, technology and innovation applied to materials and processes.
Felice De Mauro
Data, Research, Business and Customer Intelligence
In the last 30 years Felice has designed, developed and implemented innovative IT solutions, digital infrastructures and systems for key governmental entities and leading industries in the following sectors: banking, insurance, energy, ICT, space, aviation, defense and railways. His capacities allow organizations to be more competitive, modern and effective; to better collect, process and manage data; to foster capacities in business intelligence. His expertise includes also data mining, warehouse and modeling; profiling and program management. Felice is an experienced trainer and delivers courses at universities and private organizations.
Giulia Di Tomaso
eHealth, Blockchain, Security, Big Data
Born in Rome, Giulia graduated in 2009 in Engineering with Business and Finance from University College London in conjunction with the London School of Economics. In 2014 she received a doctorate in Biomechanical Engineering from University College London, developing mathematical and computational models in the cardiovascular field. During her doctorate she had her first entrepreneurial adventure, creating together with her brother and a group of friends a web and mobile application for event management, nowadays used in Europe and overseas. In 2016 she obtained an appointment as Postdoctoral Fellow at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in New York, where she worked on the development of monitoring sensors and data analysis algorithms for use in emergency medicine. She is currently involved in projects on eHealth, Blockchain and security in Italy and the United States.
Raniero Chelli
EU Projects, Funding, Research, Education
With more than 30 years in the field, Raniero is a recognized and appreciated professional. His expertise covers Research, Development, Innovation and International Cooperation. Former official of the European Commission and Italian Ministry of Research, he has an outstanding track record of support to public and private entities. His focus is project design, management, dissemination and quality control and any EU/directly funded programmes such as FP7, LLP, Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+.
Bachir Balech
Research, International Cooperation, Agro-industry
With a multidisciplinary professional and academic experience, Bachir combines agricultural engineering with molecular and conventional biodiversity, bioinformatics, computational biology and phylogenetics. In the last 13 years he has provided support to the private sector in the Mediterranean, to national and international authorities via EU funded projects and to several universities and research centers.
Prof. Paola Corsinovi
Agro-industry, Policy, Economy, Trade
She is an expert on the alignment process with EU regulations, including the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) dispositions. Her focus is on the EU wine policies, economics and their effects on trade. She holds a Phd in Wine Economics and Rural Development, has held various research position at leading Universities and Economic Centres in Italy, Belgium, California. Currently she teaches International Wine Business at the Hochschule Geisenheim University/Center of Economics (Germany).
Dario Sterpa
Labour, EU Regional Programmes, Technical Assistance
In the last 15 years Dario supported leading consulting companies such as Ernst & Young and PWC as well as EU national and local authorities in the management, implementation and control of EU funded programmes: this included the design and implementation labour market policies and measures to counter the negative impacts of the economic crisis. His expertise focuses on: the European schemes and tools settled for the public and private investments; the provision of financial and technical assistance for the national and European regional programmes (ESF, INTERREG) and for strategic investments (particularly in infrastructure); support to SMEs via innovation and smart solutions.
ELLIE HADJILUCAS
Public Health and Sport Nutrition, Food Industry, Communication
A passionate public health expert and entrepreneur, specialised in nutrition and the food industry sector. In Within the last 13 years she held various scientific and managerial roles within The Coca-Cola Company. She led the identification of new public health nutrition areas for the development of commercially successful nutrition science solutions; supported the International Olympic Committee in the revision and development of its scientific advice; coordinated the with external partners and scientific community on European projects in the area of nutrition. Ellie combines scientific analysis and evaluations with business and marketing communication capacities, along with stakeholders engagement (scientists, healthcare professionals, consumers). She is a frequent speaker at European and World Nutrition conferences and has provided support to elite athletes and sports clubs including Ajax FC. She currently works as a Freelance Nutrition Consultant, specialising in the area of nutrition communication.